Workers stand on piles of steel rods at a depot on the outskirts of Shanghai, China, on Monday, March 26, 2018.

Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News

Good morning. Chinese tariffs on U.S. meat, fruits and other products take effect today, the latest escalation in the U.S. – Chinese trade friction that continues to fan uncertainty for global business. Beijing imposed the previously announced duties in retaliation to U.S. tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, writes WSJ’s Charles Hutzler.

Penalties range from 25% on American pork and eight other kinds of goods to 15% on fruit and 120 types of commodities, the Chinese Finance Ministry said in a statement dated Sunday.

The U.S. tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum “produced severe damage to our country’s interests,” the ministry statement said. The Chinese penalties were being imposed “to protect our country’s interests and balance the damage created by the U.S. 232 measures.”

Still, U.S. and Chinese officials are engaged with one another to try to resolve the disputes, or at least prevent tensions from escalating. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is considering a trip to Beijing in the next several weeks to continue conversations with China’s economic czar, Liu He, on potential U.S. investment restrictions.

THE DAY AHEAD

The Institute for Supply Management will publish its U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for March at 10 a.m. ET. Meanwhile, the U.S. Census Bureau will report U.S. construction spending for February.

The company will spend $200 million in the current fiscal year ending Nov. 30, up from roughly $180 million in fiscal 2017, Mr. Smith said. “We have a lot of business overseas and for us to be competitive it’s good to have the tax rate come down,” Mr. Smith told CFO Journal’s Ezequiel Minaya.

CORPORATE NEWS

Pedestrians are reflected in the glass doors of a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Aug. 19, 2014.

Walmart courts new risk in its hunt for Humana.Walmart Inc.’s potential acquisition of a health insurer would push it far beyond its big-box roots, enabling it to diversify away from the competitive pressures of retailing yet also thrusting it into a complicated and rapidly evolving health-care sector.

Silicon Valley rivals take shots at Facebook. Facebook Inc. is battling a backlash from lawmakers, regulators and users on multiple contents. Some of the sharpest criticism is coming from peers, including Apple Inc.’s chief executive, an an artificial-intelligence expert at Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and several former Facebook executives.

Tech rivals chase Spotify. Sweden’s Spotify Technology SA is the global leader in music streaming, but competitors including Apple Music, Pandora Media, SoundCloud Ltd. and YouTube are hot on its heels in the race for customers.

Uber to shut rush delivery service.Uber Technologies Inc. said it will shutter a same-day parcel and package delivery service called Rush that once was viewed as a viable threat to everything from FedEx to small couriers.

NYSE in talks to buy Chicago Stock Exchange.After the collapse of a two-year acquisition effort by a Chinese-led investor group, the tiny CHX Holdings Inc.’s Chicago Stock Exchange has found a new potential buyer in the New York Stock Exchange.

AT&T- Time Warner trial’s early focus: Turner channels must-haves. The first full week of witness testimony in the trial over the $85 billion merger of AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Inc. started fairly smoothly for the antitrust case against the deal, but the government appeared to hit some bumps as the week drew to a close.

REGULATION

Rescue workers attend the scene where a Tesla electric SUV crashed into a barrier on U.S. Highway 101 in Mountain View, California, March 25, 2018.

Reuters

NTSB ‘unhappy’ with Tesla over crash disclosures.The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, in a rare rebuke, expressed displeasure with Tesla Inc.’s recent detailed disclosure that the company’s semiautonomous driving system was activated before a fatal crash last month in California.

Mall vacancies reach six-year high. Empty space in regional shopping malls reached a six-year high of 8.4% in the first quarter, adding further stress to regions being hit by a retail earthquake that is shaking up the job market across the U.S.

Iowa’s problem: too many jobs, not enough people. States are spending tens of millions of dollars on worker training programs to address a supposed “skills gap.” But in places like Iowa, many of the job openings are in small towns and rural communities that are losing population as people move to bigger cities.

Businesses beg for more low-skilled visas. U.S. demand for low-skilled worker visas for the summer season starting Sunday is again far outstripping supply, with the Trump administration forced to choose between helping businesses seeking more visas or trying to save those jobs for American workers.

The Morning Ledger from CFO Journal cues up the most important news in corporate finance every weekday morning. Send tips, suggestions and complaints to the editor: kimberly.johnson@wsj.com.